Holder



oct. 1e, 1962 Filed Aug. 15, 1960 D. E. MURRAY ETAL l HOLDER IIIIHll-IIIIII@lNIIIIIIHIIIIHIHHIIIIIHIIIlfIIIlI-IIIIIII'% @iam United States Patent Oiilice 3,058,708 Patented Oct. 16, 1962 3,053,708 HOLDER Donald E. Murray, 409 Edison, Antigo, Wis., and Albert C. Koett, Jr., 273 .luniper St., Pari: Forest, Ell.

Filed Aug. 15, 1960, Ser. No. 49,675 1 Claim. (Cl. 24S- 102) This invention relates to a baby bottle support.

Young children under common pediatric methods are at least partially fed by means of a baby bottle until they are a year to one and one-half years of age. Early in their life, it is generally necessary for an adult to assist such a child in feeding from a baby bottle. However, after they have reached six months or so of age, most children are able to assist themselves in holding the bottle. The contour and shape of a baby bottle, however, makes holding a bottle by a young child difficult so that it is common for the child to drop the bottle from a high chair, play pen or the like.

Further, during the same period of time that young children are able to hold and feed themselves with a baby bottle, they are generally teething so that quite cornmonly, they are interested in chewing on almost any available article. It is desirable, however, that some selection be made of the articles children are allowed to chew for reasons of hygiene and the like.

lt is therefore an object of this invention to provide a baby bottle support which is adapted to assist young children in holding a baby bottle while feeding themselves, and also which secondly, acts as a teething article.

It is another object of this invention to provide a baby bottle support which comprises a frame having a central portion, the central portion including an opening adapted to receive a baby bottle and means on the central portion surrounding the opening for resiliently gripping the baby bottle to maintain it in the opening whereby the frame may be grasped by an infant to facilitate feeding.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description taken together with the following drawings.

Of the drawings:

FlGURE 1 is a side View of the baby bottle support of this invention with a baby bottle in place;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged front view of the baby bottle support; and

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of FIGURE 2.

The baby bottle support of this invention may be made o-f any of the soft plastic materials commonly used today. Polyethylene, for example, is particularly well suited for the constructoin of the bottle wheel 10. It is, however, only necessary that the central portion 11 of the bottle Wheel be constructed of a plastic material, and that the plastic material have suflcient resiliency to grip the baby bottle 12 is will herein be described.

The bottle wheel 10 consists of a plurality of outer bars 13 which are disposed about the periphery of the device in a polygon form. In the embodiment shown in FIG- URE 2, a hexagon is dened. The polygon form is preferred because it always provides a flat side at the bottom of the bottle support which allows the bottle to be substantially securely placed in one position as shown in FIGURE 1.

The outer bars 13 are attached to the central portion 11 by means of a plurality of arms 14 which join the outer bars at the junction 13a between a pair of bars 13. These arms 14 define a group of openings 15 in the bottle support. The openings allow a child to grasp the outer bars 13 in a secure fashion in order to support a bottle 12 inserted therein.

The central portion 11 as previously mentioned must be constructed of a resilient material. An inner part of the central portion includes a plurality of teeth 16 defined by the transverse ridges 17. The teeth 16 are also constructed of a resilient material such as polyethylene. The opening 18 in the central portion is of a size adapted to accommodate the baby bottles commonly in use today so that the presence of the teeth on the inner part of the central portion 11 provide an opening which is slightly smaller than the average baby bottle. Due to the resi1- iency of the teeth 16, a bottle may be inserted in the opening 18 and gripped by the teeth so that it is substantially permanently mounted in the opening and may not be removed by an infant.

Once a bottle is in place in the opening 1S of the bottle support 10, it is possible for the child to grasp the bars 13 or the arms 14 in any one of a number of positions or ways while placing the nipple 19 in its mouth. Further, the child may chew on any part of the bottle support without any danger to itself, and may thus achieve a satisfactory sensation on sore gums during teething. If the child discards the bottle or drops it for any reason while in the bottle support, the bottle will not roll away but will remain in the location it is dropped. Further, if the bottle is dropped any distance, the presence of the resilient bottle support on the bottle provides additional protection against breakage of the bottle.

Having thus described our invention as related to the embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings, it is our intention that the invention be not limited by any of the details of description unless otherwise specified, but rather be construed broadly within its spirit and scope as set out in the accompanying claim.

We claim:

A baby bottle support, comprising: a frame constructed of a relatively soft, nontoxic and resilient material and having a central portion and an outer portion, said central portion having an opening of a size and shape adapted to receive a baby bottle and including on the portion thereof defining said opening a plurality of teeth extending into said opening for resiliently gripping said bottle to maintain it in said opening, and said outer portion including a plurality o-f bars joined to each other at the ends thereof to define a polygon and a plurality of arms joining said central portion to said outer bar portions, the point of connection of said arms to said bars being substantially at the point of joinder between two of said bars.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,571,826 Wellenhoffer Feb. 2, 1926 2,033,296 Porter Mar. 10, 1936 2,529,279 Breisch NOV. 7, 1950 2,708,246 Dunn May 10, 1955 2,733,883 Gourley Feb. 7, 1956 2,859,007 Cooke Nov. 4, 1958 

